Aunt Kiki comes to town.

A couple weeks ago, my beautiful, wonderful baby sister Katie decided she was going to come visit me. She's a senior at BYU, kind of crazy, and a devoted aunt. She is single, but tired of being fixed up, and I can't say I blame her. She is definitely feeling the pressure of being single at BYU at 23, so I try to keep reminding her that I didn't meet my Bracken until I was 24 and graduated from the BY.

Chloe, on the other hand, is obsessed with motherhood and kept asking Katie if she had any children, if she was going to have any children, and would include a baby bump in all pictures she drew of her, just in case.

I think my children would be lucky to have Kiki as their mother. They got a lot of love and attention while she was here, which they desperately needed since I was 2 weeks postpartum and mainly just nursing. And Kiki still had love to give after taking care of 3 of my nephews for the previous week, and driving a minivan the whole time. There are worse things than being a minivan driving college student. Like taking your driving test at 16 in a full size van. But those are stories for another day. When it's not 3:3o in the morning. Why am I awake? But I digress.

Here's Kiki and the girls after a bike ride. Chloe rode her bike around the court we live next to. Kiki pushed Addie on the tricycle the whole way. What a good aunt. Mom wouldn't have done it.
One day we went to Fair Oaks Village. It's a charming place, full of old buildings and wandering chickens. I lost Chloe there one year at a Halloween activity. But we are over that terror.
The girls had a great time chasing chickens. One day we'll be able to do that in our own backyard. Right, Bracken?
Kiki read lots and lots of books to my girls. This, unfortunately, is the only picture I have of her with Maggie. And you can't see Maggie's head.
But here are some special heads. She let Chloe do her hair. And then Katie did Chloe's hair. They are both gifted.

It was so fun to have her here. I just love and miss all of my family so much. And it was so nice to have an extra pair of hands as we adjusted to life with 3 kids. And Bracken and I even got to go on a date. (We saw 500 Days of Summer--definitely recommend.) Thanks for coming, Katie. You're the best.

Aunt Kiki at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery

In search of an inexpensive, fun activity, we went to the fish hatchery. Katie told me a joke. What did the fish say when it swam into the wall? Dam.
Dam. Dam. There's a baby somewhere in all that green fabric, by the way.

And there's a Kiki in that fish head.
And an Addie. Fish was hungry.
Maybe because the fish needs to make all these giant eggs housing small children.


Chloe in the large sculpture of poo. Or tree roots. Neither one really makes sense.
Bracken, bearing the wounds of blood donation and struggling phlebotomists, and Addie, about to feed the fish.
Dad, where'd my food go?
That's right, the crazy fish ate it. When I was growing up, every summer we would visit my grandparents in Utah. My Grandpa Geilman would take us out to this trout farm and we would go "fishing." We would throw a handful of fish food into the pond, then drop our hooks, which had a little fish food shaped piece of leather on the end, into the water. And catch a fish every time.
I kind of wish I had a piece of leather on a hook. And some more time with my grandpa. Chloe just wants to see the fish go crazy again.
Addie liked to drop her food in a piece at a time.

Then the girls decided to have the fish food experience for themselves.

I guess Addie got digested faster.

Aunt Kiki plays at The Fountains

On the last day of Katie's visit (there will be more posts to follow detailing the rest of Katie's visit, but I decided to work backwards. It seemed like the right thing to do at 2 in the morning when I'm not sleeping. Cause I'm crazy.), we went to the Fountain's shopping center to play because we really didn't have time to go anywhere really cool. But we had fun. See?But we can be normal, too.
Addie played in the water area. Chloe didn't want to get her clothes wet.
She finally decided to dance around the perimeter.
Katie and the girls at the big fountain. She's a good aunt.

Addie wanted to play in this fountain, too.

This one's a little blurry, but I still just love that grin. And Kiki is pretty cute, too.
Little poser.
Kiki and Chloe.
Chloe, Addie and their Beloved Aunt Kiki. In a public restroom. Neither girl actually got to say goodbye since they were both sound asleep when we arrived at the airport. Perhaps they'll just think she's a beautiful dream. We sure love you, Katie. Come back soon.

Before I forget

Some recent gems from my children, the ones who can speak anyway.

While making pizza the other night, Addie scooped a giant pile of cheese onto the pizza, then cradled it in her hands, repeating, "My baby, my baby." That's my girl. She also kept referring to the toppings as "Roni pepper."

I was singing "Here Comes Your Man" as we cooked and Chloe picked up the refrain. However, when she sang it, it came out, "Your Dad is coming soon."

Chloe was singing "A Spoonful of Sugar" in the car the other day, and Addie was echoing "Medicine, down. Medicine, down." It was awfully cute until Chloe started screaming about how Addie was ruining her song.

We went over to Bracken's parent's for dinner last night, and had to wake Chloe up from a nap to load her in the car. She was plenty upset about being woken up, and many tears were shed. As she got out of the car, she started to get upset again because, "Mom, I was going to show Grandpa my tears, but now they're all dry."

Fortunately I don't think we'll be having more of these episodes because at one point today she informed me that she is a grownup, and later on she told me a story that happened to her "back when I(she) was a child."

Addie, on the other hand, promises to provide many more such outbursts, and will accompany them with a hand in your face, yelling, "No, no, no, no, no." I swear, she has never heard the phrase "Talk to the Hand," but we regularly get a flashback to the mid-nineties courtesy of Addie.

Tonight, we were hanging out outside a restaurant (where we had gotten 4 meals for the price of 1, thank you very much) and the kids were monkeying around. I told them it was time to go, and she said, "NO! I need MORE!" Her other favorite words right now are "anoder (another)" and "Tooooo (it has at least 2 syllables when she says it." Her vocabulary is rapidly expanding, and starting to include all sorts of names, but is missing the letter "C." Chloe=Hoe-ey, come=hum, etc.

It's very hoot.

Pioneer Day

For those of you who are not Mormon, or not from Utah, Pioneer Day (July 34) is a celebration of the pioneers arriving in Utah in 1847. Many Utahns do not realize it is not a national holiday. Most Mormons celebrate it regardless of where they live. This year we went to a Pioneer Day Celebration at our church. There was a pancake breakfast, all sorts of games for the kids, a giant waterslide, handcart races, and the promise of horse rides. Chloe wore her cowgirl finest in anticipation of the horse rides.

Here she is trying to eat a doughnut off a string. She looks like she's playing fair, but believe me, she was using her hands plenty.While climbing into the chair for an eagerly anticipated face-painting, Addie took a spill and got her first bloody nose. I wasn't sure if she was more upset about the pain of the fall, or the fact that she'd lost her turn, but she remained a little sad even after we got her back in the line and got a heart for her cheek. Tangentally, she got her second bloody nose a week later, and breathed blood all over my clothes. Chloe, on the other hand, just barely got her first bloody nose ever about a month ago.
Chloe was thrilled with her rainbow.
And even more thrilled with the bouncehouse. It distracted her from the fact that the horses hadn 't shown up yet.
Addie loved it, too, though she had to battle with the woman supervising the door every time she tried to get in. Obviously this woman has no idea what a bruiser my little girl is. She can take down Chloe easily, and does so regularly.
Finally the horses arrived, and Chloe saw them, so we had no choice but to wait for our turn to ride. Chloe got to ride a "fast" horse named Jet, whom she still speaks of fondly.
She really wants to get a horse and keep it in our yard. I told her her room was out of the question.
While she was riding, her sisters did this.
All in all, we had a lot of fun.

Last Family of Four Outing, or what we did on my due date.

I should have posted these before I actually had Maggie, but there was so much else to do. On my actual due date, we decided to do one last fun thing before she arrived. The weather was remarkably nice, so we decided to take a trip to the zoo.

Here's Chloe being a flamingo (models are in the background).
Addie and Daddy in the reptile house.

Lots of me, and Chloe, with a big bird.Addie Butterfly
Chloe Spider
Cute girls on a frog and dragonfly.
Kangaroos
We got a complimentary ride on the carousel. Addie jumped on and started yelling and running toward "Nemo! Nemo!"
Chloe chose a turtle.

Bracken chose to wait to the side. Unlike Chloe, carousels are not his favorite.

And a belated Happy Birthday celebration for Chloe at Grandpa and Grandma Mannion's marked our very, very last outing as a family of four. I was off to the hospital the next morning.